Dear YSYS Advocates.

It’s been a busy few months at YSYS HQ. Over at YSYS we’ve been busy working on a new product to support organisations launch their EDI (equality, diversity, and inclusion ) strategies, but before we get into this, below is a reminder of the impact we have created together so far...

We launched YSYS Advocates to be the change we wanted to see in the startup ecosystem, more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. Since launching, together as a community we have:

• Built a community of 233 advocates, committed to raising awareness of issues that impact diverse founders and talent

• Empowered 1,270 attendees through a two-part series event, called The Rise of Black Communities (Opens in a new window), where we shared ideas and examined together we can build a better future and industry for black communities.

• Lobbied for HM Treasury and The British Business Bank to implement a D&I Action Plan for Future Fund (Opens in a new window)

• Launched #KnowYourData Campaign (Opens in a new window) and YSYS Advocates Diversity Data Help Centre (Opens in a new window), which was featured in Tech Nation D&I Toolkit (Opens in a new window)

• Encouraged 23 organisations to take action and become #KnowYourData signatories (Opens in a new window)

• Delivered 3750 hours of Diversity and Inclusion training to corporates, startups, accelerators across the UK

• Provided access to opportunities in tech for 17,000+ diverse individuals in tech

• And much more .. you can read more about our impact in YSYS 201/2020 Impact Report HERE (Opens in a new window)

We’ve been taken back by the response of the #KnowYourData Campaign, and have taken on board your feedback and ideas to launch something new; LaunchEDI. (Opens in a new window)

LaunchEDI (Opens in a new window) is an insight platform, which helps organisations discover, design and launch their EDI strategy. 

We do this in four ways:

• Discover: Explore our easy to use templates to discover your organisations EDI performance and benchmark across industry best practice

• Review: With your personalised dashboards, identify key areas of performance and improve your progress with our expert recommendations

• Design: Build real-time action plans, project manage your EDI strategy, and share with your stakeholders

• Implement: Work with our implementation consultants to execute the next steps effectively and launch your EDI strategy

We are currently looking for pilot clients, and have opened up our waiting list. If you would like to find out more and start your EDI journey with LaunchEDI sign up HERE. (Opens in a new window)

So what does that mean for YSYS Advocates - we will no longer be accepting new members, and we'll be pausing current campaign opportunities, focusing on YSYS Community projects (Opens in a new window) and LaunchEDI (Opens in a new window). If you would like to continue to support us on the mission, you can continue your membership fee or cancel your membership. (Opens in a new window)

We want to thank you for your continued support and hope you can join us on the next part of the journey with LaunchEDI.

Best,

Deborah Okenla, Founder and CEO of YSYS. Co-founder of LaunchEDI